Relationships between thought suppression and symptoms of borderline personality disorder

The current study examined relationships among childhood emotional vulnerability, an invalidating childhood environment, thought suppression, and symptoms of borderline personality disorder (BPD). Emotional vulnerability and an invalidating childhood environment are described by Linehan (1993) as important biosocial precursors to the development of BPD. Using a student sample selected to have a wide range of BPD symptoms, we examined whether thought suppression mediates the relationship between these biosocial precursors and symptoms of BPD. Results supported the hypothesis that thought suppression fully mediates the relationship between invalidating environment and BPD symptoms. Mixed support was found for the hypothesis that thought suppression mediates the relationship between emotional vulnerability and BPD symptoms. We also examined whether fear of emotions mediates the relationship between the biosocial precursors and thought suppression. Results supported this hypothesis, and also suggested that fear of emotion contributes independently to mediating the relationship between biosocial precursors and BPD symptoms.